Wisconsin Department of Health to stop using SSNs

Following its latest data breach, the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services has announced it will no longer use Social Security Numbers as part of its identity system. Instead, they plan to implement a system that will assign randomly generated ID numbers to everyone in their system.

Deputy Secretary for the agency, Karen Timberlake, says this system has been in the works for some time in order to avoid identity theft. The new change will be rolled into a complete upgrade of the Medicaid computer system – a project taking two years extra and twice as much money to complete.

In 1993, Wisconsin set up an advisory Privacy Council. However, it was eliminated by the Governor in the 1995-1997 budget. Although such a framework may not have prevented the latest breaches, it would have established a framework for the collection and use of personal information.

Via govexec, madison.com Tags: wisconsin, wisconsin state, department of health and family services, data breach, ssns, social security numbers, id numbers, privacy